Participants at the Capacity Building Workshop for the Greater Mekong Subregion's Cross-border E-Commerce organized by the ASEAN-Korea Center in Seoul in August, 2017. (AKC)

The ASEAN-Korea Centre and the Korea International Trade Association will co-host the 2018 ASEAN Digital Commerce Forum at Trade Tower in Seoul from Thursday through Friday.

The event will be attended by diplomats, commerce officials and private sector representatives from the electronic commerce sector from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Korea. Various lectures will be presented by Korean experts and business leaders, covering topics such as the current e-commerce trends here, while nine ASEAN representatives will explain the latest market developments in each ASEAN member state.

One-on-one business meetings and networking between both sides’ representatives will also take place.

“The size of the e-commerce market in ASEAN is expected to increase by sixteenfold and reach $ 90 billion by 2025, with 160 million middle-class consumers and rapid improvements in internet penetration,” said ASEAN-Korea Center Secretary-General Lee Hyuk.

“ASEAN is expected to become the next e-commerce frontier in the world. As Chinese e-commerce giants such as Alibaba and Tencent are expanding their businesses across ASEAN, often making huge investments in local giants like Lazada, ASEAN and Korea need to forge closer ties and cooperation for their mutual benefit.”

The forum will serve as a platform to share experiences, knowledge and visions for the industries of both sides, he added.